Originally Posted by
treyrox
I would imagine that taking more than one, maybe 2 aircraft out of the longhaul rotation at a time would be challenging as the number of spares that currently exist is already so slim. So even if by year 2 of the conversion they are doing 25+ per year that is still going to take until at least 2011 to get done. That is a long way out. I guess as long as FTers are able to keep track of the converted planes and pick their travel accordingly things will be fine. It sounds like their will be some solid differences between planes for quite some time.
Actually, it seems easy to me. The length of time and description of gutting the plane makes me think that they're going to do it on a C or D check when it's already in maintenance. During a D check, all of the seats and carpet are removed anyway.
For my speculation, I bet that they pull 2 of the same type of plane around the same time. It would save on the scheduling logistics (i.e. which style of plane is flying from point A to B on a routine basis).